The In the Balance show at the MCA has put environmental concerns on the agenda for many of the staff who work here every day.

There’s something of a “festival” feel in the air, a spirit uniting the workers whose minds have been switched onto thinking about the relationship between what they do and the wider world of resources and pollution of which they form an integral part. Sometimes this heightened sense of consciousness causes some unease in the carrying out of everyday tasks…

Here are a few ideas I’ve heard bouncing around while I’ve been on-site this past month:

• Glenn: We should give staff and museum visitors the option to walk up the stairs during the exhibition. (Currently, floors 3-6 of the MCA can only be accessed by the lift – how much power does this use per journey? More homework for me…)
• Glenn again: We should get museum staff, and visitors to the show to make a pledge for the duration of the exhibition. Eg: I will not drive my car to work. Kind of like giving up beer for lent or something. (This sounds a bit like the “I Will…Project” which was recently aired here.)
• Judith: Maybe we should look into getting a bokashi compost bucket for the staff lunchroom, to harvest some of the leftover food scraps. (I’m trying to get my friend Paul (aka “Dr Worm”) to come and consult on this very issue… A bokashi bucket is quite cheap – it would probably require some enthusiastic full-timer to be its keeper though…)
• Tony: I wish we had decided to do a proper Energy Audit on this show, and “offset” its overall emissions. (I think it’s not too late Tony, we could always make an offset action in retrospect, or as an ongoing effort in the future)…

Anyone else got any ideas, big or small? Let’s have em.